New Learning Portal for Africa
Ahead of the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP27), which is held in Egypt from 7 to 18 November 2022, the newly founded African Meteorological Society (AfMS) has worked in collaboration with the UK’s Royal Meteorological Society to produce a suite of learning resources for their website africanmetsociety.org.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” …Nelson Mandela
- The new learning portal
In 2021, with assistance from the International Forum of Meteorological Societies, the Meteorological Societies in Africa established a permanent organisation – the African Meteorological Society (AfMS). The AfMS aims to bring local knowledge from all the individual societies to cooperate, build capacity, and share best practices in the field of weather and climate across Africa.
The AfMS aspires to organise education and training events, share resources, host conferences, and encourage science and technology collaborations. It will pay particular attention to those aspects of meteorology which can be solved only on an Africa-wide basis or are best approached on that scale.
As a member of the International Forum, the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) is one of the partners supporting the African Meteorological Society with its vision for strengthening its meteorological capacity in Africa. RMetS recognised that training is of central importance and was an area in which they could help.
There is a lot of useful learning material already available online, and a small RMetS team of experts has collated, reviewed and grouped over 70 learning resources for different audiences. The new learning portal offers a suite of materials and learning resources and provides a clear, single point of reference for people across Africa to access recommended courses and resources that have been subject to expert scrutiny.
Altogether, there are seven lists of learning resources, each one developed with a specific audience in mind e.g. school children and teachers. In every list, there is some detail about each resource, such as who created it. There is also a brief description of what it contains, the languages it is available in, a website link, and the connectivity requirements for accessing the resource. Each list can be used online or downloaded from the website.
More detail about the project and links to resources can be found here.
For media enquiries relating to the Royal Meteorological Society, please contact Melissa Gerbaldi, Communications Manager (Royal Meteorological Society), melissa.gerbaldi@rmets.org or (0)118 208 0483.
For media enquiries relating to the African Meteorological Society, please contact: Buruhani Nyenzi, Chairman of the AfMS Board bnyenzi@gmail.com or Mr. Workneh Degefu, Vice-Chairman of the AfMS Board afms.vicechair@gmail.com.
Note to Editors
About the African Meteorological Society
In the year 2021, with the kind assistance of the IFMS (www.ifms.org), the Meteorological Societies in Africa have established a permanent organization called African Meteorological Society (AfMS) africanmetsociety.org for their cooperation to build capacity in Africa.
AfMS will pay particular attention to those aspects of meteorology which can be solved only on an Africa-wide basis or are best approached on that scale.
About the Royal Meteorological Society
The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) is a membership charity that serves as the leading independent expert in weather and climate.
The Society is owned by its membership but exists for the benefit of all. It plays a key role as the custodian of both the science and the profession of meteorology in the UK and has an important role to play internationally as one of the world’s largest meteorological societies. Programmes of work are broad and diverse, with activities and events held for members, the general public, educators, policy and decision-makers and the wider meteorological and climate community.
To find out more about the Royal Meteorological Society, discover a wealth of weather and climate resources, and become a member, please visit: rmets.org